COP26 summit: New draft uses weaker language for action against emissions

Glasgow, Scotland

A new draft introduced at the COP26 summit has demanded more urgent action against climate change and the emission of carbon dioxide.

It presses countries to reach higher in their plans to tackle global warming but also tries to balance the demands of developing and richer nations.

Experts believe that its language is much softer and weaker than the previous one. However, it retains its core demand for countries to set tougher climate pledges next year.

Giving poor countries hope for more financial support to cope with global warming, negotiators at this year’s UN climate talks in Glasgow appeared to be backing away from a call to end all use of coal and phase out fossil fuel subsidies completely.

The new draft is a balancing act, trying to take in the demands of both climate-vulnerable nations and large economies reliant on fossil fuels.

After two weeks of round-the-clock negotiations, delegates produced a round-up of their progress, which urged governments to accelerate "the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels".

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Delegates in Glasgow from nearly 200 nations are charged with keeping the Paris Agreement temperature goals alive even as climate-driven disasters hit countries the world over. 

It had an aspirational target to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and so avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

The latest draft also adds wording that could create a fund to compensate countries for serious destruction resulting from climate change. 

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Rich nations such as the United States, who have historically been the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, are opposed to any legal obligation to pay for loss and damage suffered by poor countries.

To increase pressure for a strong deal, protesters planned to rally outside the COP26 venue, where activists had hung ribbons with messages imploring delegates to protect the Earth.

Under current national pledges to cut emissions this decade, researchers say the world's temperature would soar far beyond that limit, unleashing catastrophic sea level rises, droughts, storms, floods and wildfires.

(With inputs from agencies)